Hay Day has been around for over a decade. It is one of the earliest works from Supercell – the same developer and publisher of Clash of Clans. Hay Day is a somewhat different game compared to what Supercell releases nowadays. It is also the only farm game that they released and is still widely considered one of the best barn games ever. Now made for both the PC and mobile as a free to play game, Hay Day still gets regular updates and weekly events that make the game feel fresh even after over ten years in existence.
It is backed up with fun yet relaxing gameplay that involves strategic farming as well as afk management. Hay Day is also arguably the first farm simulator that lets you return to the game to see your resources replenished or delivered in real-time. However, if you are still new to the game and looking for some blue-collar work more excitingly, we got just the how-to guide for you. Do not worry about it much, though, since the game will hold your hand throughout the entirety of the game until you have mastered it.
Key Controls
We do not recommend any shortcut keys because you can go throughout the game with just a mouse. However, you can assign some keys to the buildings you have, but the screen often changes because you go to places other than your farm.
As long as you have a functioning mouse, you are good to go.
Early Game
In the early game, you can only afford cheap barn animals. You will need to deploy your chickens, cows and pigs all ready to start the business. Eventually, all the harvested resources will be uploaded on the truck for delivery. While you are focusing on the animals, you should also clear out the terrain. After all, the animals will only be efficient if they have enough room and like space. A dog or a cat is also helpful since it will keep your farm animals in line.
You start with an axe, which is best for removing bushes and small trees. Eventually, you will get dynamites for removing large rocks; a saw to take down trees, a shovel to create a pond and a TNT barrel for destroying a large cluster of stones.
Don’t worry about the tools’ dangers since they won’t kill your animals or harm your products. You will only have a very slow truck cart for you to use for transporting goods. If you need to up the ante on your products, you will want to start immediately in your bakery for the town. The bakery will require several resources: wheat, eggs and milk. In exchange, the bakery will provide you with bread – a crucial resource in the early level to start growing your income.
Not long after, you should be able to create a feed mill that will make your animals happier. And increase the probability of having more resource volume from the animals you own. At this point, your farm should be thriving even just a little bit. If you are disciplined with the game, you should get to level 6 to 8 in just mere minutes.
Once you do, you have three options: a dairy farm, a sugar mill, and a popcorn pot. We recommend you go with dairy first because it only costs 50 coins. The Sugar Mill and Popcorn Pot are more expensive since they cost 350 and 650 gold, respectively. You can also choose to upgrade your transport vehicles if you want faster gold and resource trading.
Mid Game
Mid game is around level 9 to 19, and this should be the busiest phase for you. At this point, you should add more chickens, pigs, and cows to the farm to increase the productivity of your farm. Just make sure to keep them happy since an animal with a low meter may produce little resources or even none.
It would be best to create a pond for the ducks and more land for sheep to roam in. While many players may say that you should expand your land already, please do not do it until you have enough excess money to stretch the ground and buy more useful buildings. Instead, focus on your farm animals and their productivity. You might want to upgrade your transportations too if you have not yet in the early game.
Your building options include a barbecue grill, a pie oven, a loom and a sewing machine. The grill is excellent for selling cooked meats. Pies are great for utilizing your bakery. The loom and sewing machine is for the wool and feathers that you harvest from sheep and duck.
It would be best to have enough building supplies to improve your early game buildings.
Building Options
The bakery, feed mill, dairy, and sugar mills are highly recommended to receive an upgrade. Choosing which one you should go for first depends entirely up to you because building resources are scarce. Suppose you pick the building that you think doesn’t even necessarily need it as a priority. In that case, you might end up very unhappy with the game and look to repeat your progress. Our recommendation: keep ongoing. Resetting your progress is not worth it, especially with a strategy farming game such as this one that depends on real-time progression.
The BBQ Grill and Pie Oven are the best buildings. If you want to sell a lot in restaurants since they are looking for high-quality consumable products to bring to their businesses, this is the best deal. Other than those, you can also go ahead and focus on the dairy and sugar mill if you want to maximize income from raw produce like milk and eggs. The dairy can also supply other businesses with cheese and cream, great quick sources of income with low risk.
Popcorn Pot doesn’t earn much even when upgraded because it only depends on corn. You don’t have to focus on this unless you want to become the town’s popcorn king (but come on, who does that in the game).
The Loom and Sewing Machine are amazing buildings if you want to earn a lot of money. Even at just level 1, these two buildings maximize a large profit. Some players would even sell all their farm animals and focus on sheep due to its large money exchange. However, keep in mind that sheep are expensive to buy. Once you reach Level 21, you are now in the late game.
Late Game
Your business should be thriving now. The only missing buildings on your farm this time are the better versions of your early game buildings. These include the Cake Oven at level 21, the Smelter at level 24, the Juice Press at level 26 and the Ice Cream Maker at level 29. Keep in mind that after class 29, exp acquisition will be much slower, and the next building will only be available at level 29.
Also, this part is the most challenging point of the game because all the next available buildings will be more expensive. Sure, you will earn more, but you will have to utilize that money to invest in upgrades for your older buildings. After all, if you do not upgrade the old ones, the income will barely rise. So, as a precaution, you will want to invest in your building resources.
This part is also the best opportunity to do mining and expanding the land finally. Mining is great for post-game stores like the Jewelry and has one of the highest income sources in the game. At some point, you will run out of room to add the buildings. As such, you are going to need at least one expanded piece of land. However, owning one is not as simple as you would think. You must provide the following requirements: a Land Deed, a Mallet, a Map Piece, a Marker Stake, and an Expansion Permit.
Not only will owning a new land let you build more establishments, but it will also open up new fishing lakes. It is just that gathering resources for expansion supplies is very hard. You will need to make it count if you ever want to see your farm and town grow. Well, not unless you wish to pay with real money to buy out the progression and instantly unlock the supplies.
Post-Late Game
This part is where it does not matter what you build first or what to focus on as a farmer. Assuming you already have many resources and a significant number of buildings, you can establish whatever business you want. The Jam Maker, the Jeweler and the Honey Extractor are great for the first part of your post-late game phase since the income from these is enormous.
After this, the following levels are entirely restaurants and kitchens that will benefit both the farm and the town. Therefore, the town economy now entirely runs through you. Without you, the city would be in complete chaos. There will be no more utility buildings starting from level 35 since these are just for consumable product-based businesses now. Establishments like Candy Machine, Sushi Bar, Salad Bar, Sandwich Bar and Taco Kitchen are all there to be found in the very late part of the game. Eventually, the last building is the Deep Fryer, which is at level 87.
Going with the Flow of the Game
Even without our help, you should be able to follow along with the game’s progress. Whatever you begin or end with is entirely up to you because there is absolutely nothing to lose here. The only thing you will lose is the time you spent on it because of the very engaging gameplay that has sucked in millions of players all over the world for more than ten years.
Download and play Hay Day and get all the Hay Day Items for free on PC right here.
